Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari criticised the British government on Monday for keeping Pakistan on its “red list” of countries facing travel restrictions, saying that they never asked Pakistan for data related to the country’s coronavirus situation to review their decision.
The minister was responding to a report carried by a section of Pakistani press that quoted sources in the UK government as saying London had kept Pakistan on its “red list” as the country had not provided UK authorities data on vaccination and testing.
In a sharply-worded tweet, Mazari said that the UK government is dominated by ‘Indophiles’.
“Ridiculous! UK govt, dominated by Indophiles and despite globally documented India’s continuing disastrous handling of the COVID pandemic, moved India to the Amber List but keeps Pakistan on the red; then under pressure from Opposition MPs, gives feeble excuse that Pakistan didn’t share data,” she tweeted.
She defended her stance, saying British authorities never asked for the data as the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has “the most centralised & daily updated data bases anywhere & data shared with UK HC”.
She criticised the UK government for ‘shifting goalposts’, noting that it had earlier said Pakistan had been placed on the Red List because more passengers from Pakistan compared to India were testing positive for COVID.
